THE EXOTIC CAMEL FAIR

People camp here for the duration of the fair, just like our own fairs. But they have no electricity or laundromat.

She is obviously older and Ranvir explained to us that India has only a guess at their population, that is changing now. He asked her, Mother, how old are you? She said, I don’t know, but I think I’m about 70.

This man has a food booth with huge pots of wonderful smelling  broth or soup.  One pot I could see rice and lentils and we another with vegetables in a rich gravy. But we watched him serve a customer and he used this dirty rag to clean the stainless steel plate he used to dish it up. It didn’t bother his customer.

In this booth, a couple cooks naan sitting on the table with a portable adobe stove.

Then we meet what we in the U.S. would call a snake oil salesman. He sells bottles of elixir, (as good as viagra) some to ingest, others in pill form or a salve to rub on your skin  to cure just about everything.

The Chinese have wonderful herbal medicines, and the herbs are very impressive as he explains to us how things work.  So several of us try his arthritis oil. Oh, well. My bottle cost me in rupees the equivalent of 16 cents.

This young man is training a beautiful black horse.

The current fad is to get animals to walk on their hind legs. Ranvir asked him how much he was asking for his horse. Not for sale. He plans to make it a champion and will breed it someday.

As we walked this dusty road, a parade walked by us.

This man casually leads three camels. They seem to be very docile animals.

These two are all decorated and beautifully groomed just like my daughter did her horse at our fair. The similarities tickle memories.

I took a picture of this woman by a heavily patched tent because of the stuffed animal on the top. I asked to take a picture and a young girl immediately reached up and hauled it down for me to see. Again, a slight commonality with an American fair.

Ranvir talked to some animal buyers. He told us these guys don’t look rich. But they can plunk down $10,000 dollars for an animal-in rupees, of course.  He asked several of them how much they paid. One man we met was crying the blues because he sold his animals for $2,000 dollars and doesn’t have a bank account and no way to cash it. He couldn’t even buy anything to eat or drink. He asked us to give him rupees for his check.

The man with the cane is showing off and dancing all over the place. Ranvir warned us people at the fair might ask you to pay to take their picture, but don’t pay any more than 20 rupees. I asked and he said 500 rupees. So, I said no. He then began his dance.

Then he came right up to me and let me take his picture for free. Ranvir said, “He’s drunk. They come from small villages and this is the event of the year for them. So, they drink and party and have fun.” Another similarity of our fairs.  Too funny.

We found a show ring where the horse has been trained to walk on hind feet.

And then made to dance on a bed. A drummer keeps up a cadence. These horses are a unique breed called twist eared rajasthans.

Remember our bad actor from the camel yard? Here he danced on the bed as well. I’m short and got buried in the crowd and couldn’t get the picture.  Ranvir said dancing animals on the beds is something new this year.

This man is loading up sand into a truck. He has just met Hugo.

Hugo wants to help. And he very quickly shoveled a load of sand into the pan.

He does have flair for entertainment. He would be a hit at our fair in  Angels Camp.

Everything gets decorated for the fair, machines, tents, animals.

Back at camp,  I sit out and enjoy the dancing and the music.

A magician struts his stuff.

 

Theo retired early. We both gratefully  curled up with the hot water bottle delivered to each bed at night.

 

 

FROM THE ASHES.

Driving home from Oregon yesterday took seven and a-half hours. As I rolled into the county, local radio announced a burn of 450 acres near Mountain Ranch, the area that took the brunt of the Butte Fire. The Butte Fire is considered the worst for home losses in the state from a single fire.

The day before I left, I managed a quick trip to the local Arts Council Gallery for a look at their exhibit entitled History From The Ashes.

There is no joy in picking up cherished or simply common objects from your burned out property. Mostly sadness, tears and awe that anything recognizable survived the conflagration.

We know art is healing. And there is something about picking through the ashes that must be common to all of us. I watched on television as folks did just that after Katrina. The flood, destroyed as completely as fire.

When my house burned to the ground in Michigan, I remember finding  my melted marbles and my mother’s  jar full of precious coins. The wafts of smoke coming from the ashes, the strong smell, the bent bed springs and melted cook stove didn’t make me give up hope that I might find a heart shaped plastic locket my grandmother gave me that contained a tiny rosary. Of course, it couldn’t possibly survive, but my 8 year self believed in miracles.

Items found, were given an artful setting of remembrance.

Or put together to form a sculpture or a mobile.

One survivor made a fabric wall hanging, with burned out spars of trees surrounded by wild flowers. A reality, wild flowers, rain fed, follow a burn.

Dead bushes and trees amid new grass on this canvas.

You can see my face reflected in the glass covering a spectacular photo by John Slot of the borate bomber releasing its chemical fire retardant.

And this photo by Katie Clark of a partially burned home with a surviving flag.

The most spectacular piece in the show is this shawl, positioned like an effigy with burned offerings at its feet. The shawl was made from the ties that bound hay bales distributed to land owners. Hay spread on bare ground, an effort to help prevent erosion. This artist washed and dyed the pieces. She softened them enough for weaving and wove this shawl.

It is a good feeling that something pretty, or remembered or useful rises from the ashes of despair and we can all see through to their recovery and healing, as art surpasses the ashes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old West Photos

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 4,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

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The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails RV Resort…about 20 miles east of Palm Springs, California. I’m scheduled to depart here March 17th.

 

A friend sent me an email with these great photos and I would like to share them with you…

 

 

 

: Old Photos That I Haven’t Seen Before……….THE OLD WEST………….

Cowboys Around the Hoodlum Wagon, Spur Ranch, Texas, 1910   Judging by the saddle style, this unidentified cowboy was working in the late 1870s or 1880s. In his holster, he carries a Colt model 1873 single action revolver with hard rubber grips, and He has looped his left arm around a Winchester model 1873 carbine in a saddle scabbard. On The back of the photo is the light pencil inscription “Indian fighter”. Snow Tunnel ~ On the Ouray and Silverton Toll Rd ~ Colorado ~ 1888 1899 Concord, Michigan “Buggy & Wagon Shop” Thankful someone took the time to photograph this type of beauty – April 1937. “Buttermilk Junction, Martin County, Indiana.” 1887-West Center Street, Anaheim, California.  Now we have Disneyland here!   Moser’s, Guns, Banjo’s, and Mules at the Liverystable in East Tennessee around 1890 In 1906, a massive magnitude 7.9 earthquake ruptured the entire San Andreas Fault in Northern California. That is a huge running crack in the ground. Now they are building houses right on the line as fast as the boards can be delivered. Hmm …. This is what real cowboys looked like in 1887.  Not as fancy as on TV, huh! Some of the toughest, bravest people we know of.  They gave it their all to go west and start A new life.  This wagon train is in eastern Colorado in 1880. This moose team belonged to W.R. (Billy/Buffalo Bill) Day. They were found by a Metis near Baptiste Lake in 1910 and were reared by bottle and broken to drive by Mr. Day at Athabasca Landing during the winter of 1910. Mr. Day and the moose team hauled mail and supplies. In the American Civil War, soldiers were required to have at least four opposing front  teeth, So that they could open a gunpowder pouch. Some draftees had their front teeth removed to Avoid service.  In our day they just jumped the border into Canada. Here we have a tired old prospector during the Klondike Gold Rush. Lulu Parr – Her skill with the gun caught the attention of Pawnee Bill, who signed Her to his show in 1903. She left that show but came back in 1911. By that time, Pawnee Bill had joined Buffalo Bill’s show. Buffalo Bill was so in awe of Lulu’s Willingness to ride unbroken ponies that he presented her with an ivory-handled Colt single-action revolver, engraved with “Buffalo Bill Cody to Lulu Parr 1911.” From the drivers seat of a 40 mule team. These rigs were used to haul Borax out of Boron CA.  And  then loaded onto railroads for manufacturing. All this so you could do the laundry!  Man, that’s a lot of horses!   Hoops had to be removed before taking your seat in a carriage and then they were hooked Onto the back of the carriage. Deer Hunter Living In A Log , 1893. Tough guys live in tough places, I guess.  Home is where You make it!   Omaha Board of Trade in Mountains near Deadwood, April 26, 1889. It was created  in 1889 by  Grabill, John C. H., photographer. The picture presents procession of stagecoaches loaded With passengers coming down a mountain road. This is a stunning photograph from 1862. The image shows a Civil War Ambulance crew Removing the wounded from a battlefield. It shows a horse-drawn ambulance, and the Zouave uniforms of this unit.

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

 

Recently I’ve been running blogs about my 2004 Central America trip. While here I’m intending to continue those postings while also alternating with other past blogs.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

 Yesterday was sunny and 82 degrees. Forecast for today is sunny and 86 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2016

MANUFACTURING AND DESIGN

Wouldn’t it be nice if one could travel from the Motor Home to the house and get on my “resident” computer and have it work the way it did when I left it?  No such luck, of course. After two days of struggle, I still cannot get my photos to load the way they normally do, so I’ve figured out a way around it.  I can sympathize with the demented guy in a cartoon who takes a hammer to his television or computer. Frustrating.

I like driving my Prius and just had a new battery pack installed. But after reading Steve Westley’s report, I’m thinking I should have bought a Tesla. Steve is a dot-com millionaire with a community service bent.  He volunteers his service on the  state’s Energy Advisory Board.  I met him twice and I’m very impressed with his intelligence, and ideas. Anyway, you might want to read his take on the new Tesla being manufactured right here in nearby Fremont, CA. at the old G.M Plant.

I have never been a big “car guy” and have been driving the same car for 12 years. However, I just got my new Tesla Model S last weekend, and it feels like driving something from the future. The all-electric Model S is built in Fremont, CA at the old NUMMI auto factory that Tesla reopened after it was closed by Toyota and General Motors. The car is faster than almost any other production car (0 to 60 in 4.2 seconds) and gets the EPA equivalent of 95 miles per gallon. It also costs 75% less to operate than a gas-powered car. That’s why Motor Trend chose Tesla as Car of The Year. The Model S is a great example of Silicon Valley innovation and American manufacturing ingenuity. If you also have solar panels on the roof of your home, you may never pay a cent for electricity or gas again.

Who knows, I may buy one yet. And then, there is building design. I’ve designed two houses and live in one still. I never thought I’d be designing another one, but since my mobile flooded in Oregon, that is a very real possibility and occupies a good bit of my thought these days. Look at the Energy Board’s report on digitizing homes. Steve chaired the Subcommittee on Building Energy Efficiency. The Committee’s report follows:

Buildings use 40% of the nation’s energy – more than the transportation or industrial sectors. The National Academy of Sciences points out that “full deployment of cost-effective energy efficiency technologies in buildings alone could eliminate the need to construct any new electricity-generating plants in the United States” until 2030. In November, our subcommittee released a report analyzing the tremendous potential for cost savings, available technologies, and Department of Energy programs and initiatives related to building energy efficiency. The report outlines what the U.S. needs to do is to lead this revolution. We have digitized music and cameras; it is time to digitize buildings.

The challenge is before me and I’m hoping the eventual economy of the building might mitigate the extra cost of using these features.  When I find out what they are, I’ll let you know. I just hope they have a self-cleaning garage and a self repairing computer.  (The report was put out Nov. 2012.) Should be perfected by now, doncha think?

 

 

 

 

 

LADY LEX

The USS Lexington is fondly called Lady Lex around Corpus Christi, Texas. She served valiantly in WWII and served a total of 48 years. The Japanese kept broadcasting her sinking, never true. She became known as the ghost ship that came back to life.

Here she sits in the harbor.

She was attacked by two kamikazes. One was shot down, the other hit her island, did huge damage, killed 47 and wounded 123 men. The kamikazes were a desperate measure by the Japanese. They recruited young men do die for their country and offered the great honor of wearing a head band (hackamachi)  used by respected feudal samurai. Kamikaze means Divine Wind, a wind god said to have repelled a Mongol fleet heading toward Japan in 1281.

The Japanese distributed these flyers to demoralize the men. You can barely read at the top, The bearer is entitled to honorable treatment as prescribed by the Geneva Convention.

This is a very personal museum. Many letters described the attack and the subsequent sadness of burying their friends at sea.

One survivor sent in his dog tags and a piece of shrapnel from the “Zeke” they shot down.

The four self guided tours take you all over the ship and while I walked I had this sense of deja vu as though I’d seen this ship before. I could see men running through the hatch doors;

water oozing up though the hatches as the ship flounders in flood mode.

I see the men running, as the horrible piercing sirens go off and some sailor struggles to turn off these valves. I was running all of those WWII movies through my brain only to learn later that indeed, the Lex had been used in several movies.

Sailors slept in hammocks like this, only 18 inches from each other.

A later refurbishment gave much improved sleeping arrangements, but the men who used them referred to them as coffins.

An old swabbie looked like this.

And a modern swabbie we recognize.

If you like models, there were rooms full of them, every size, every ship and plane.

I preferred pictures and paintings of ships.

Here is the Lex going through the Panama Canal with planes like toys littering her deck.

As you walk into a room, a sensor starts a recording and in this spot I heard Roosevelt sadly delineate the number of ships wounded and sunk at Pearl Harbor. The casualties in men. It was about 300 men and 316 ships, if memory serves me.

You can see the fear and dread in these young faces as they prepare for battle.

And, the wonderful moments of relief and joy at liberty.

Other duties than war.

It was cold and windy and we viewed the deck last. Three football teams could play on this deck at the same time.

The island, the control tower, is the highest part of the ship which from bottom to top is 19 stories high.

I climbed into this wheel well and Jim took my picture.

I liked the painted personality of the Skyhawk, the plane I crawled into.

The navigation room, again gave me that deja vu. The compass on the right, with the huge compensating  ball-magnets keep the compass functioning. So, I got to massage the navigator’s balls, as they are called.

The life rafts are now reversible, so no matter what side they fall on you can get in. But, it isn’t water proof. Brr, that’s cold.

There was so much to see here. We spent four and one-half hours on the ship. Pricey, we thought, at $11.95 each, senior price, plus $3.50 for parking.  We also ate a delicious cafeteria style lunch on board. But, they also show two major movies wearing 3-D glasses that were absolutely stupendous and worth the price of the ticket on their own. So,  go see the Lex if it is the only thing you have time for.

ROAD TO TEXAS

To fly from Murphys to Texas takes two days. I first drive to my daughter’s house near Sacramento, spend the night, and get a ride to the Sacramento Airport for my 6:10 a.m.flight to meet Jim in Harlingen, Texas. I flew from Sac to Los Angeles to San Antonio, to Harlingen. The flight was delayed 20 minutes because of ice and sleet on the runways in San Antonio. A bit bumpy from San Antonio on through.

I know Jim missed me. He had champagne waiting and HE, THE GRINCH HIMSELF, cooked me dinner. But, alas, the pictures are still in the camera. I brought two cameras and two cables with me but, not the correct cable to unload pictures from the Sony.

I shared two legs of the trip with a delightful lady named Rosa. I took her picture and several others. I told her to look for her picture on the blog. My apologies Rosa, if you see this.

And, after allowing my computer to sit for 6 months, it was not happy about my return. It wants everything updated, and cleaned up. My security had expired and I downloaded and installed another program before I did anything else.. Well, you know how it goes.

It is colder here than in Murphys. Remember, this is weather- wimp territory. But, Jim assures me it will be back in the 80’s by Monday. I’m looking forward to getting my rambling life back after the accident. I’ll be doing therapy for quite a some time yet while on the road. We’ll be moving a bit slower than normal, for awhile. But I’m happy in Texas.